30 April 2001

Dateline Dhaka: BDR chief is not our man, says BNP

30 April, 2001The Times Of India

Dateline DhakaBDR chief is not our man: BNP

By Siddharth VaradarajanThe Times of India News Service

DHAKA: For the Indian government, Maj Gen Fazlur Rahman, the Bangladesh Rifles(BDR) chief who ordered his men into Pyrduwah/Padua on April 15, is nothingmore than a glorified agent of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, acipher who did what he did in order to undermine the India-friendlygovernment of Sheikh Hasina.

But the BNP says that far from being their hatchet man, the BDR chief isactually related to a senior leader of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League and washand-picked for the job by the prime minister herself.

In a formal reaction to rumours swirling around in New Delhi linking the BNPto the Padua action, the party strongly denied any involvement with the BDRchief and dropped a broad hint that Sheikh Hasina had tried to stage-managethe incidents at the border in order to derive electoral mileage.

Though BNP leader Khaleda Zia preferred not to speak about the border clashes,party secretary-general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan told The Times of India that theBDR's action at Padua was "almost certainly" cleared by Sheikh Hasina.Bhuiyan also confessed that neither he nor Khaleda even knew about the factthat a part of Padua was under Indian control until the BDR chief and thehome minister announced that it had been "liberated".

As for Fazlur Rahman, Bhuiyan said, "He is not even known to Begum Khaleda. Ifanything, he may be close to the Awami League as he is the son-in-law ofAbdul Rahim, a senior League leader in Dinajpur". He added: "And all the toppeople in the army are filled with people partial to the ruling party. Howcould the BDR chief be someone close to us?"

Asked whether a BNP government would have done what Hasina did at Padua,Bhuiyan said that his party stood for good relations with India and believedin the negotiated settlement of outstanding problems. But he insisted the BDRacted "to prevent the building of a road by India", something he claims wouldhave permanently compromised Bangladeshi interests.

"In any case," said Bhuiyan, "what really bothers us is the fact that Hasinahas done nothing to protest the subsequent armed Indian incursion atRoumari".

The BNP leader said that if Hasina "has done these things consciously to stagea drama, it has boomeranged. Things have gone against her. She could not keepPadua, nor could she protest the Indian aggression". He said that obviouslythe opposition would raise the border incidents in the upcoming elections."The issue is already in the field. We have been telling people the AwamiLeague defends Indian, not Bangladeshi, interests. They did this with boththe Ganga water agreement and the Hill Tracts agreement. What happenedrecently is only one more thing".

As for his party, Bhuiyan said that when Khaleda Zia was prime minister, Dhakahad "very good relations" with New Delhi. "If we come to power again, we willhave excellent relations. We believe India is a great neighbour and we willtry to solve the border issue through negotiations conducted on the basis ofequal respect for each other".